How To Increase Blog Traffic

In this post, I’m going to, very briefly, look at some of the things which can be done to increase traffic on your blog, with the view to perhaps expand on these in a series of upcoming posts. All listed techniques are applicable on new, as well as established blogs. It is, by no means, an exhaustive list, so feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments section!

Getting traffic on a blog, especially if it’s a new one, can be tricky. However people have mastered the art of getting thousands of visitors a month to great effect!

Increase Blog Traffic

1. Search Engine is King!

Currently, Google alone gets as many as 3 million searches a day! That is a staggering figure, and let’s not forget that search engines like Bing and Yahoo are used by thousands as well. It is therefore important to ensure your blog is search engine friendly. Being higher up on Google’s search results (or SERP) is imperative.

Using SEO tools and understanding the power of backlinking is also extremely important. Getting traffic from authority websites will make Google sit up and take npotice. The internet is littered with millions of tools which help you do this; do read some review before you choose which ones to use.

Also submit your content to search engines directly.

2. Use Social Networking and Social Mediums

It would be downright foolish to estimate the power of social mediums. Facebook has 850 million unique users, and 483 million daily active users on average in 2011! And those numbers are going up quickly. Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, Google Plus, Pinterest and the like are also boasting similar numbers. Also make sure to add plugins which allow people to ‘Like’, ‘RT’ or ‘+1’ your content. Every time there’s a new post up, send out an update to the people following you on your pages.

Also submit your content on other content sharing mediums like Reddit and StumbleUpon. Reddit, for instance gets billions of visitors monthly!

However it is important to come with a proper social networking strategy, instead of blindly flinging your content across all mediums. Time is money!

3. Target Audience

Look to target an audience who are more likely to share your content. Target people with a high social networking potential (SNP) – in simple terms, these are people with the ability to reach out to a large group of people. This could maximize the exposure of your content. Word of mouth is a powerful tool!

4. Make your blog attractive

A visually-friendly blog goes a long way in attracting new visitors. The combination of the theme, colors and font should be such that whenever someone visits your blog, he or she is compelled to stay and browse for a while. Also make use of pictures, images and videos.

5. The content is what makes or breaks your blog!

Another thing that will leave a last impression on any visitor – old or new – is quality content, that is updated daily. Make sure your posts are interesting to read, and not just some boring wall of text or commentary. Be a bit interesting, tell a story, use humor, use images but don’t overdo it! Just try adding value to your posts.

Also ensure that your website is not outdated, and this includes the frequency of your posts, as well as the content on your pages (such as your About Me or Contact Us pages). When someone visits your blog, he should be looking at one that is up-to-date, and has new and fresh content on it. Even if you think you cannot do one-post-a-day, update your blog at least once or twice a week. A large percentage of people would never revisit an outdated blog.

You could also try being controversial, since as they say, no publicity is bad publicity!

Also do keyword research before writing your posts, simply adding those keywords in your posts could have you rank for them very easily.

6. Look at the statistics!

Install Google Analytics, Google’s free tool which lets you look at detailed traffic statistics. Look at where you’re getting most of your traffic from. Concentrate your efforts on these sources, but tailor your strategy accordingly.

7. Network with bloggers and other people in your community

Link to posts on other blogs, and it might lead them to link back to you to. If someone’s already linked back to you, return the favor. Do guest posts on other blogs, and ask bloggers in your niche to do guest posts for you too. Build connections and network with them. Ask others if they can review your products, or feature your blog on their Facebook page or website.

8. Harness the power of comments!

Comment on the posts on other blogs. Always have something constructive and useful to say, but never spam! Add a link to your website where it asks you to. This could be an invaluable way of building backlinks to your content.

9. Subscriptions

Allow people to subscribe to your posts – either via email, RSS or through social networks.

10. Advertise your Blog!

Put the URL on your visiting card, our FB/Twitter/Social profiles, on your email signatures. Advertise your blog, spread the word, let everyone you know – friends, family acquaintances, colleagues – about your blog. Don’t shy away from being referred to as a ‘blogger’ in face, use that to refer to yourself and proudly!

Concluding Words

I kept it brief, but I’ll to expand upon each of the aforementioned points in upcoming posts. So stay tuned!

In the meanwhile, do share your thoughts with us in the comments section below. Feel free to add something to the post as well!

PS. In addition to my post above, this is a good read on the same topic as well!